Sparta’s Cellar Brewing Company has made a big move to 133 E Division Street right in the heart of downtown. The brewery previously resided at 500 E Division Street and the move has been well thought out with plenty of enhancements for Cellar Brewing beyond just the more prominent location including a new bar, brewing equipment, and full kitchen. Add that to Cellar’s already great lineup of beer, wine, cider, and spirits and this equals a true destination brewery to the area.

Bier Distillery has been quietly producing quality craft spirits from Cellar Brewing’s location out of Sparta, Michigan since late 2013 but has only recently received necessary labeling and distribution approval to make their full line of spirits available outside the brewery. In fact, the distilling license actually predates current owner Chuck Brown’s ownership and the brewery still offers flavored vodkas which has long allowed for mixed drink options for customers in addition to craft beer. For upgrading the distilling component, the new owner has brought in new equipment as well as brought in distiller Joel Bierling to oversee operations.

Brew House is located at 255 Seminole Dr. in the City of Norton Shores in Muskegon County conveniently right off the Seaway Drive / Business 31 on the way into town. The business was previously a coffee house but has been relaunched under new ownership and has recently expanded beyond traditional coffee drinks with the addition of a full bar with an emphasis on Michigan craft beer, wine, and spirits.

For the second year in a row, over twenty Grand Rapids area breweries are teaming up with Friends of Grand Rapids Parks to raise money for their Urban Forest Project, an initiative to maximize the tree canopy in all parts of the city.

Cellar Brewing in Sparta has now had one year of direction under new owner Chuck Brown, who purchased the brewery formerly known as Michigan Beer Cellar from previous owner Dan Humphrey last year via Cragslist for an undisclosed amount. The brewery was rebranded “Cellar Brewing Company” soon after purchased which included a complete overhaul not just of the logo but also new labels for existing recipes currently being bottled. In addition to the old favorites, new recipes have been added over the past year, starting with Chuck’s own recipe the Lucky Enough Amber Ale which was debuted at last year’s St. Patrick’s Day Celebration.

Here we are, just a few days away from WINTER BEERFEST! I have assembled my top 25 list for this year, and my is it sounding delicious! Breweries from all over the state are bringing their brightest and best for the festival, anxious to share their fantastic brew with all of you!

While previous Beer City collaborations have found me travelling to a dozen or more breweries in one week, this current challenge brought multiple breweries to single convenient locations over several weeks. This time the theme was bourbon barrel-aged beers, with numerous breweries offering up their best barrel-aged releases for the challenge. Harmony Brewing Company hosted the first week, with Hopcat, and the B.O.B.’s Brewery hosting subsequent weeks.

17 Grand Rapids area breweries participated in the latest “Beer City” collaboration effort and this time around the emphasis was all on the trees. Every brewery involved contributed at least one tree-inspired beer recipe ranging from smoked beers, barrel-aged beers and even fruit beers. I spent the launch week visiting breweries to sample as many of the tree beers as possible, and visited a personal record of over 2 dozen breweries in one week’s time!

Ypsilanti’s Riverside Park is the home to Michigan Brewers Guild’s Annual Summer Beer Festival, one of several events hosted throughout the year. I’ve previously attended the Winter Beer Festival in Comstock Park, but this was my first year to check out the long-running Summer Beer Fest, and like many of the Brewers Guild events this year’s event was a sellout with over 6000 attendees. Note: if planning to attend one of these events, be sure to book your hotel weeks if not months in advance!